Honest Repentance: Chaos

On Good Friday in 1964, a massive earthquake occurred off the coast of Resurrection Bay in Alaska. Eyewitnesses as far away as the town of Seaside, Oregon report that the water along the coast was first sucked out to sea, exposing the mud at the bottom of the Necanicum River and creating a trough 1200 yards west of the beach. (https://nctr.pmel.noaa.gov/education/science/docs/tsun2975/tsun2975_appendixC.pdf.) The water level beyond the trough rose, until finally it all came rushing back in to devastate the town. Water is one of the most destructive forces on earth.

From the very first pages of Genesis, God deployed his word in a battle with water. There was a watery chaos that smothered any possibility of life until God divided it by his word. He fixed the firmament to keep the waters above separated from the waters below to open up a space in which life could dwell. With those boundaries in place the water that did exist in the Garden was a cool, life-giving mist—no longer the destructive watery chaos.

After the fall, the waters take on an even more ominous tone. When God saw human wickedness increase in exponential proportions, he removed the boundaries of the waters. For forty days, the water came not only from above but also from the fountains of the great deep below. The separation that God had effected in day two of creation collapsed and the waters came rushing back in to destroy life, except for Noah and his family and the animals on the ark. The sea was no longer merely the force of chaos, but an instrument of God’s own wrath and his judgment against sin.

And yet when St. Peter reflects on Noah, he says that Noah was saved by the waters. The instrument of God’s judgment at the same time became the means of salvation for Noah and he floated on top of the waters in the ark that God told him to build.

The sea next figures prominently in the history of God’s people as Moses was leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. Pursued by Pharaoh, the children of Israel encountered an enemy even more ferocious: the sea. They were trapped. They could not go backwards because they would impale themselves on Pharaoh’s swords. They could not go forwards because there they would meet a watery grave. But once again God separated the waters from the waters. The Israelites went through the middle of the sea on dry ground. In the beginning, God had opened up a space where human life could flourish, and now he opens up a space where the Israelites could escape.

Not so for the Egyptians. When the Egyptians followed the Israelites into the sea, God took away the boundaries separating the waters from the waters. The sea rushed in and swept away their chariots and drowned the Egyptians. Miriam sang this song: “I will sing unto the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and the rider he has thrown into the sea.” For the Egyptians, the sea was divine wrath, but for the Israelites, it was God’s salvation.

Jesus battled the sea with his word in his earthly ministry as well. One day he was asleep in the back of a boat, and a storm arose on the sea and threatened to destroy the disciples. But Jesus said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” and there was a great calm (Mk 4:39).

And in Revelation, God overcomes the sea. Before his throne is a sea of glass. No more chaos and death. It is completely smooth. Until finally in the new heaven and the new earth, the sea “is no more” (Rv 21:1). This represents the final triumph of God’s word over the watery chaos.

Now you might think that a Christian is immune from this chaos, but not so! Think of your baptism. The Small Catechism tells us that baptism is water combined with God’s word. In your baptism God throws you directly into that primeval battle recorded in the first pages of Genesis. So, it’s no surprise that the Christian life is a struggle! Don’t be deceived about the Christian life. It’s not “nice.” When you look around you at the other people in this room, you might be tempted to think that everyone else has it all together, and you are the only one who is a mess. But what do you think the church is? Is it a calm place, full of light, in which we gather together in an orderly fashion at an appointed time to hear a few polished words of fine rhetoric? Are you supposed to nod in pious agreement with the words of the preacher and say to yourself, “How nice”?

We are baptized! That means we are all in the fight of our lives! So, of course you are overwhelmed by chaos. That’s the struggle. I’m not talking just about superficial sins like you get angry with someone who steps on your foot, or you drive 40 miles an hour in a 35 mile an hour zone. (I suppose that’s a sin against the fourth commandment). No, I mean your life isn’t turning out the way you want it to. Maybe you lost your parents when other people haven’t. Or you’re single and you don’t see how you will ever be married. Or you don’t think God could possibly love you. Or you have doubts because Christianity just seems implausible after all that you have been through. You’re left out. Maybe the Christian life is full or at least livable for the other nice people who have their lives put together, but you will never thrive.

Don’t fall for it. These attacks do not define you. What you are seeing here is microcosm of what is playing out in the pages of Genesis. You look at that story to understand what is happening to you. These attacks are images of the primal forces that are in play at creation itself. Whether it’s chaos or God’s own wrath, it’s not always easy to tell. This is the watery chaos that suffocates life. But the catechism tells us that baptism is not just the water, but it’s also God’s word. God’s word separates the waters from the waters and opens up a space where life can thrive. It divides the sea and lets the Israelites pass through on dry ground. You can fight this battle and you can win because you have the word of God at whose rebuke the waters fled and which set a “boundary that they may not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth” (Ps 104).

In this season of repentance, we acknowledge that we have been overwhelmed by the forces of sin and evil in our lives, but we also acknowledge that we have God’s word, which is powerful to tear apart those forces. As the Psalmist says, “The waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. We will not fear though the earth gives way, and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.” (Ps 46).